Learn fun facts about the Sentricon System!

The Sentricon(R) System Story

We thought that with swarm season just around the corner—or, depending where you live, arriving right now on your doorstep—we’d remind you how the Sentricon® System works to destroy not just one termite, but the entire colony. Swarm season occurs when newly developed reproductives leave the colony, shed their wings and attempt to create new colonies, so it’s important to understand why colony elimination is the best solution to your termite problem. “The Sentricon Story” video uses a quick-draw white board art technology to tell the tale!

Subterranean termites are social creatures, living in a highly organized caste system in an underground colony. Each caste member has a role, and they depend on each other for survival. The queen can lay millions of eggs in her lifetime. The king exists to reproduce with the queen. The soldier’s job is to protect the colony from invaders, like ants. Reproductives, or swarmers, are the termites with wings. When they’re ready, they emerge from the colony to begin new colonies. A colony can number from thousands of termites to millions, and it’s common to find two or more colonies competing for food around a property. The workers are responsible for feeding the colony by regurgitation, as other termites such as soldiers can’t feed themselves. Workers forage for food 24/7 by building tunnels and mud tubes from the colony to the food they find. Once they discover food, they mark it and their path to it with a pheromone—that’s a chemical they produce to communicate with each other. Termites can enter your home through an opening that’s as small as 1/32nd of an inch. If there’s a settlement crack, loose mortar joint, a small space around a drainpipe or a crack in your foundation, they’re in. And the damage begins.

The termite bait begins working the moment it’s put into the ground. Just like a tree that expands its branches to absorb more sunlight, termites add additional tunnels off the main tunnels to maximize the colony’s chance of finding food. So naturally, they’ll find and begin feeding on the Sentricon bait stations. They can’t help it, it’s in their DNA! Their biology is why the bait—the science—the system—works. Once ingested, the patented active ingredient, noviflumiron, prevents the workers from molting. When they can’t molt, they die. And dead termites can’t feed their colony, so the colony dies. Because termites can’t detect noviflumiron, they continue feeding on the bait and deliver a lethal dose to the colony until it’s gone.

A Certified Sentricon Specialist™ will strategically place Sentricon stations about 10 feet apart around the perimeter of your home and in areas conducive to termite attack. He or she will check the stations and replace the bait when necessary, making sure it’s always working to prevent further attacks on your home. So every time you see those green stations, you can take pride in knowing that your home is being protected 24/7/365 by the product homeowners prefer over any other brand. That’s the science of the Sentricon® System—death to the queen, death to the termite colony—for good!